NVTC TechPAC Endorses Bob McDonnell for Virginia Governor HERNDON, VA, October 1, 2009 - The Northern Virginia Technology Council TechPAC (NVTC TechPAC), the Northern Virginia technology community's political action committee, today endorsed Bob McDonnell for Governor of Virginia. In a concurrent announcement, TechPAC endorsed Delegate Steve Shannon for Attorney General of Virginia. The TechPAC Board of Trustees voted to endorse Bob McDonnell following a thorough review of each candidate's voting records on issues of importance to Northern Virginia's technology community and face-to-face interviews with each candidate. During the interview process, technology business leaders discussed with each candidate their campaign platforms and proposals, voting records, and positions on the issues in NVTC's technology business agenda. "While the NVTC TechPAC Board of Trustees has a great deal of respect for Creigh Deeds and his commitment to Virginia, the Trustees determined that Bob McDonnell is a strong leader with specific proposals to ensure Virginia remains a competitive and innovative global technology center," said Dendy Young, TechPAC Chairman and Chairman and CEO of McLean Capital, LLC. "McDonnell has a consistent history of working closely with our technology industry and will build on his record of developing and supporting Virginia's technology initiatives and on his long-term commitment to business development in the Commonwealth." While the TechPAC endorsement is based on NVTC's technology policy agenda, it is important to note that both candidates fell short on transportation. The TechPAC Board felt strongly that neither candidate presented a plan that would adequately and permanently address our transportation funding crisis. The next governor must solve our critical transportation needs through a realistic and bipartisan solution. About NVTC TechPAC Launched by NVTC in 2001, NVTC TechPAC is governed by a 25 member Board of Trustees that includes prominent business leaders representing many of the largest and well known technology businesses in the region as well as the smaller entrepreneurial businesses that help drive Northern Virginia's technology economy. NVTC TechPAC identifies and supports General Assembly candidates throughout the state, as well as those candidates for Governor and Attorney General, whose positions, policies and initiatives best reflect the priorities and interests of Northern Virginia's technology community. NVTC TechPAC endorsement decisions are based on the issues and priorities articulated in the Northern Virginia Technology Council's Policy Agenda. Paid for by the Northern Virginia Technology Council. Authorized by NVTC TechPAC.

http://ideas.virginia.gov/

Commonwealth of Virginia

2009-10-02

The Virginia Ideas Forum offers a place for residents and citizens of Virginia to voice their suggestions and concerns to state officials. Other residents and citizens may comment and vote on these ideas. In addition, state officials offer responses on the forum. This website is an excellent place for individuals to become involved in government.

ideasforum.jpg

Liz Moore

George Mason University

http://manyeyes.alphaworks.ibm.com/manyeyes/

IBM

2009-10-02

Many Eyes is a collaborative, innovative resource for graphs, maps, charts, and other interactive resources. Users may browse data ranging from the status of smoking in Virginia restaurants (by county) to food safety or sports statistics. The website offers detailed information about different types of data visualizations (pie charts, histograms, maps, etc.) and ways to create such visualizations. Users may then input their own data into the website, complete with charts or maps. Many Eyes is an excellent tool for learning how to create and interpret many types of data sets.

manyeyes.jpg

Liz Moore

George Mason University

Constitution of Virginia

Article V Section 15. Attorney General.

An Attorney General shall be elected by the qualified voters of the Commonwealth at the same time and for the same term as the Governor; and the fact of his election shall be ascertained in the same manner. No person shall be eligible for election or appointment to the office of Attorney General unless he is a citizen of the United States, has attained the age of thirty years, and has the qualifications required for a judge of a court of record. He shall perform such duties and receive such compensation as may be prescribed by law, which compensation shall neither be increased nor diminished during the period for which he shall have been elected. There shall be no limit on the terms of the Attorney General.

http://www.icitizenforum.com/videolib

Colonial Williamsburg Foundation

2009-07-30

The iCitizen Forum is a project created by Colonial Williamsburg that "promotes understanding of the balance between rights and responsibilities in a historical context." The video library contains a number of interviews with scholars and other public figures about democracy and government in the United States. Those who are particularly technologically inclined can also follow the project's YouTube channel.

icitizen.jpg

Liz Moore

George Mason University

1 day (90—minute class)

SOL Skills
GOVT.1a
GOVT.1e
GOVT.1f
GOVT.1g

SOL Content
GOVT.8c
GOVT.9b
GOVT.9d

The students will:

1. Describe the reaction of Virginia lawmakers to the Brown v. Board of Education decision.
2. Interpret the meaning of Article VIII, Section 1 of the Virginia Constitution.
3. Compare and contrast the possible impact of the proposed referendum in the 1950s to combat the Brown decision and the impact of the current policy of charging fees to public school students.

Source Analysis

Activity 1 

• Before watching the video clip, refresh the students’ recollections of the period in Virginia after school desegregation was ordered by the Supreme Court in the Brown decision. Explain that the Gray Commission proposal allowed the Commonwealth to give parents vouchers and tuition assistance so that a child could attend a private, white academy.
• Show the press conference of Governor Thomas B. Stanley discussing Section 141 of the Virginia Constitution, which requires the Commonwealth to provide a system of free public schools. The clip is available online at: Civil rights TV, part of the Virginia Department of Education web site.. Note: If internet access is not available, Handout #1: Virginia’s Dilemma—Thomas B. Stanley Interview Transcript may be used instead.

After students view the clip, as a class discuss the following questions:

1. What were the conditions in Virginia public schools in 1954 prior to the Supreme Court’s desegregation order?
2. In what ways would the Gray Commission proposal have defeated the purpose of the Court’s decision in Brown v. Board of Education and threatened public education in general?

Activity 2

Distribute Handout #2: Virginia Constitution, Article VIII, Section 1 and have students answer the questions and discuss their answers as a class.

Activity 3

Distribute Handout #3: The Price of a Free Education and Handout #4: The Price of a Free Education Analysis Questions.  Handout #3 is a publication from the children’s advocacy group JustChildren Program of the Legal Aid Justice Center and is also available as a pdf online at the Legal Aid Justice Center web site.

Group Discussion

Conclude the lesson with a group discussion in which students respond to the following questions:

• How should state and local levels of government implement public policy regarding fees and public schools?
• What fundamental principles guide government policy in public education?
• How do interest groups influence policymakers at state and local levels of government?

Background

Massive Resistance

The Massive Resistance movement to the Supreme Court decisions in Brown v. Board of Education and its progeny, in which Southern states attempted to block or delay implementation of desegregation of schools, represents a political controversy with a multifaceted nature. From 1954 until 1959, first Governor Thomas B. Stanley and later Governor J. Lindsay Almond advocated legislative means of circumventing desegregation, including setting up a system of publicly funded private “white academies” and even closing public schools in Virginia. Many of these measures would have necessitated amending or repealing Virginia’s constitutional requirement that the General Assembly maintain a system of free public education. Although schools were closed briefly in Norfolk and Charlottesville and for five years in Prince Edward County, Massive Resistance was singularly ineffective in blocking implementation of desegregation; in Virginia, Massive Resistance as a means of achieving a state-wide response to Brown was dropped nearly as soon as it was put in place.

In 1959, after both the United States Supreme Court and the Supreme Court of Virginia ruled that the measures taken were unconstitutional, Governor Almond abandoned the cause of Massive Resistance and encouraged the General Assembly to follow his lead.  Scholars have advanced a variety of theories to explain the decision by Virginia’s political leaders to abandon Massive Resistance, most of which consider the decision to be a triumph for urban and suburban forces over the previously overrepresented rural Southside region from which the Byrd Organization obtained its political domination. Ultimately, Governor Almond explained his decision to leave Massive Resistance behind by asserting that the importance of maintaining good public education in Virginia eclipsed his opposition to desegregation of the schools.

School Fees and the Virginia Constitution

In response to the study made by the Legal Aid Justice Center, the Virginia Department of Education conducted its own survey of school districts to determine what sorts of fees were being charged. A wide range of practices was revealed. The state Superintendent issued a memo clarifying his understanding of appropriate practices concerning school fees. Many school districts drastically decreased fees, thus creating a budget deficit that only further contributed to the shortfall in funding facing public education at a time of economic downturn.

Conclusion

The importance of the state constitutional requirement that the Virginia General Assembly maintain a system of free public elementary and secondary schools for public policy formation by state politicians and interest groups has been demonstrated. During the upheaval of school desegregation, politicians were thwarted in their attempts to circumvent federally ordered school desegregation in part by the presence of this section of the Virginia Constitution. Similarly, policy entrepreneurs found this section of the Virginia Constitution of great value in their fight against school fees which the Legal Aid Justice Center contended disproportionately impacted low income families, thus serving to highlight the role of interest groups in the formation of public policy at the state and local level.

Differentiation

Rather than distributing Handouts #2 and #3 to students, the teacher could display these sources with an LCD projector or overhead projector and guide students in reading the documents. Students with access to either laptops or a computer lab could access the materials directly and perform related searches expanding their inquiry to relevant news articles relating to both school closings in the 1950s and debate over school fees during the 2008–2009 school year.

Deborah Sprenger

Roanoke County Public Schools

Why I Taught These Sources

Few issues in Virginia politics generate as much heat among lawmakers as transportation. The struggle over how to deal with ever-worsening traffic can be found in many areas of the state: the choked highways and tunnels of Hampton Roads, the tractor-trailer clogged lanes of Interstate 81, and the commuter-generated parking lots of Interstate 66, Interstate 95 and the Washington Beltway.

The issue allows for many topics regarding the proper level of government service to the public. Should more money be raised to pay for transportation? If so, should it be directed to roads or to other transit options, like railways, buses, bicycle lanes, and the like? How should the state’s transportation resources be divided among north and south, urban and rural?

For me, transportation issues are about as exciting as government policy-making can get. Students often have first-hand experiences regarding the different quality of roads and traffic in different parts of the state. Many have often had experiences with mass transit at some points in their lives. Some have experienced the conditions of roads in other states and sometimes other countries. They can grasp the taxing tradeoffs involved: the dollar tax that can pay for public services, and the time tax that is paid when the roads are clogged and it takes extra time to go anywhere.

Thinking about these issues in the context of opinion columns can give students the means of evaluating the competing policy views from the perspectives of their own experiences and those of their fellow classmates. Unlike the ideological issues that sometimes dominate political discussions, reading transportation opinion columns from the state’s top policy makers can give students a sense of the policy basis of the state’s partisan divide, and the extent to which vital public policy issues can be very difficult to resolve.

How I Introduce These Sources

I introduce the students to the two opinion columns after providing students with an introduction to Virginia’s transportation situation. Key issues to explore with the class before embarking on this case study include asking students to grade the state’s handling of key matters relating to transportation. Do we have an “A” system of roads in our community? How would we determine what is an “A” system of roads? How do they compare to elsewhere? Given the experience nearly all students have as passengers and eventually as drivers, this is a topic that can generate a lot of discussion. I then repeat the process of asking for students to report grades for Virginia or Amtrak passenger railroads, airports, etc.

Depending on how much the students offer about their range of experiences across transit options and locales, I will often supplement the conversation with information about the different transit problems of different parts of the state, with particular focus on the Washington, D.C. suburbs, Hampton Roads, and the very dangerous tractor-trailer congestion found along Interstate 81. I provide comparisons about state levels of support for highway construction and maintenance. (Virginia has a relatively low gasoline tax compared to neighboring jurisdictions, and the growing fuel efficiency of vehicles means that this is both a relatively small and a declining source of revenue). Virginia also collects less in tolls per capita compared to many neighboring states, which can speed up traffic flow but can also limit the money the state can budget for transportation purposes. (Anyone who has driven I-95 through Delaware, for example, is hard pressed to imagine any highway anywhere where one has to pay more per mile to drive).

International comparisons are also useful for this discussion. Would high-speed trains, like those found in Europe, be worthwhile expenditures? If so, what cities should be on the routes, and which ones should not be? Why? Should spending on highways be cut in favor of mass transit?

In addition to the class discussion, I have students read Handout #1: “As Candidates Ponder Taxes and Traffic, Specifics of Road Proposals Remain Elusive” which is a Washington Post transportation news story on the 2009 governor’s race and gives students a basic understanding of the political debate.

Reading the Sources

After the students have read the Washington Post news story and we have talked about transit policy along the lines discussed above, I have the students read the opinion column by Governor Kaine, Handout #2: “Virginia's Unbuilt Road to Progress.” (I start with Kaine’s column because it was published first). I ask them to talk about the differences between the news story and the opinion column, and hopefully the students can sharpen their skills as news consumers through this exercise. I then ask them to outline the main points Kaine makes in his column. I then ask them how persuaded they are by these arguments. What doesn’t he talk about?

I then have them analyze the Howell opinion column, Handout #3: “Virginia Republicans Kept Their Promises on Transportation,” the same way: outline the main points, and determine how persuaded they are by these arguments. Again, students are asked to consider what this writer chooses to talk about and chooses NOT to talk about. Then, with columns under their belts, the students are asked to think about which writer seems most persuasive and why.

Reflections

Students who have been exposed to the heavily opinionated talk shows on cable and the posts of bloggers can be surprised by this different format for expressing one’s views. In the cold print of an article of this length, bluster can only get one so far: it’s the evidence that can make the difference between being persuasive or not in the opinion column format. Of course, one needs to stick to the main points: rarely do opinion columns run over 700 to 750 words, and these opinion pieces are each under 700 words. A close analysis reveals how each side pumps up its arguments and undermines the other party’s views. The utility of facts for public discourse are an important lesson as well. Each politician is at his most persuasive when the words move from partisan attacks to more substantive policy disagreements. This debate sheds light on the question of the gap between what people want from government and how much they are willing to pay to meet those demands.

One of my personal goals as a teacher is to focus on the quality of public discourse. In my view, too much hot air fills the cable shows and online policy discussions. (In fact, I find that many of my students discuss policy issues with the heat they have seen on cable). At a minimum, an analysis of intelligent opinion columns—even when penned with a measure of partisan venom—can demonstrate the utility of evidence for making the case. I also like this collection because it focuses on a key Virginia policy issue with which nearly every student will have significant personal experience.

With this background, students are prepared to research and write opinion columns of their own. Depending on the level of students involved, one might insist the topic be about some aspect of transportation. A teacher could provide research materials to make the assignment more manageable. Another option would be to give the students a topic or two to write about in their own columns on a range of state issues.

Stephen J. Farnsworth, Ph.D.

George Mason University

For Release: February 26, 2009
Contact: David Clementson
Email: dclementson@oag.state.va.us
Phone: 804-786-2071

Mims Elected Attorney General of Virginia

RICHMOND – The Virginia General Assembly today formally elected William C. “Bill” Mims as Virginia’s 45th Attorney General.

The former Chief Deputy Attorney General, Mims succeeds Robert F. “Bob” McDonnell, who resigned on Feb. 20, 2009 to run full-time for Governor.

In this position, Mims is responsible for the Office of the Attorney General and its 337 attorneys and staff. He will serve until January 2010, when the new Attorney General who will be elected in November is sworn in.

Mims served in the Virginia House of Delegates from 1992 through 1997, and in the Virginia Senate from 1998 to 2005, before being tapped by McDonnell as his top lieutenant in January 2006.

“I am honored to serve as Attorney General following Bob McDonnell,” Mims said. “Bob McDonnell was an exceptional Attorney General, and I plan to continue his legacy by providing the very best legal services for Virginia’s citizens.”

Mims added, “The Office of the Attorney General is the law firm for Virginia’s governmental agencies. I am proud to work with such dedicated public servants.”

A native of Harrisonburg, Mims was educated in the Harrisonburg public schools. He received a degree in History from the College of William & Mary, where he was president of the student body. He also did graduate work in Public Administration at William & Mary. He has law degrees from George Washington University and Georgetown University.

During his years in the General Assembly, Mims worked as an attorney in Leesburg. Prior to practicing law he served as Chief of Staff to U.S. Rep. Frank Wolf and as Deputy Legislative Director to Senator Paul Trible. He served on the Board of Governors of the Virginia Bar Association from 2002 through 2004, and was a Distinguished Adjunct Professor of Law at George Mason University from 2002 through 2005.

Taking on the Systems that are Failing Working Virginians
Getting Started on Day One

Hi, and thanks for visiting my website. I'm Mike Signer, and I'm running for Lieutenant Governor to take on the systems that are failing working Virginians and their families and to shine a spotlight on problems we've all ignored for too long. I'm running to make Lieutenant Governor a public advocate for all of Virginia, not just a stepping-stone or a place-holder. As your Lieutenant Governor, I'll roll up my sleeves and get started on day one.

This is the right time for Virginia Democrats to invest in a nominee who represents the new generation of leadership. I believe my experience in Virginia government and as Deputy Counselor to Governor Warner, my achievements as an activist fighting for justice and fairness in Virginia, my work with some of the top progressive policy minds in the country, and over a decade of service as a Virginia Democratic activist and strategist make me that candidate.

I'm running for Lieutenant Governor because I believe the office can play a very active role in increasing opportunity in our economic system and helping to create new jobs, pushing our environmental system to the forefront of the country, fulfilling the sacred contract we have with veterans and military families, and fighting for justice and fairness in our democracy.

Over the course of this campaign, I'll develop and present specific plans for how a public advocate Lieutenant Governor could meet these goals by creating new commissions and serving on existing ones; creating new institutions to drive progressive policy in Virginia; forging partnerships with private and public organizations to create innovative, inexpensive, and impactful new enterprises; and launching public advocacy campaigns.

I hope you'll take part in this venture. We're creating a bottom-up movement of Virginians dedicated to the future rather than the past—to creating a new vision for one of Virginia's three constitutional offices, to challenging politics as usual, to creating a viable progressivism in a red state, and, finally, to putting Democrats back on the offense this fall.

With your help, we can get all this done—and more. Please join me.